Why It Took Nintendo So Long to Revitalize This Almost 40 Year Old Franchise

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Nintendo is famous for creating iconic video game characters and series. Games like Super Mario Bros. have become cultural staples, with the Mario brothers appearing in numerous games and other media. Nintendo has done a great job keeping these characters relevant and appealing over time, which has helped them stay popular. But not all Nintendo characters have enjoyed the same lasting success as Mario.

Many beloved Nintendo characters and games have faded into obscurity over the years, only to be rediscovered later. The Metroid series is a good example – after being dormant for almost ten years, Metroid Prime revitalized the franchise and re-established Samus as a major Nintendo icon. But some Nintendo games experience much longer periods of inactivity, sometimes lasting for decades. This happened to one of Nintendo’s earliest creations, which went nearly thirty years between releases.

Kid Icarus Was Part Of Nintendo’s Original Generation

Kid Icarus was one of Nintendo’s first game series, but it remained relatively unknown for many years. Following the huge success of games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo’s development team, R&D1, began working on two new projects: Metroid and Kid Icarus. Metroid leaned into a science fiction style, while Kid Icarus drew inspiration from Greek mythology. The game’s development was a tight race against time, and the final version wasn’t finished until just days before its release in Japan on December 19, 1986. It was then released to a wider audience around the world the following year.

Kid Icarus centers around Pit, a young angel who must defeat Medusa and her forces from the Underworld, as instructed by the goddess Palutena. The game was notably ambitious for its time on the NES, receiving generally positive, though sometimes divided, reviews. Critics praised its immersive atmosphere and responsive controls. However, its challenging difficulty and simple, colorful graphics weren’t universally appreciated. Ultimately, the game received a mixed response from players and didn’t achieve the same level of sales success as other popular Nintendo games.

Kid Icarus Has Only Gotten Three Games In Forty Years

I’ve been a Nintendo fan forever, and while series like Super Mario and Zelda have tons of games, Kid Icarus always felt a little overlooked. It didn’t quite hit the same way as those other big titles when it first came out, so Nintendo seemed to move on from it pretty quickly. Interestingly, even Metroid had a bit of a slow start, but Kid Icarus didn’t connect with audiences quite as well. Both games ended up getting sequels on the Game Boy – Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters and Metroid II: Return of Samus – which were actually released in North America before they came out in Japan, which is kind of neat!

While Metroid became a huge hit for Nintendo with Super Metroid, Kid Icarus wasn’t so fortunate. Though there was talk of new Kid Icarus games for both the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64, none of those plans ever came to fruition. Capcom and Factor 5 both attempted to create Kid Icarus games for the GameCube and Wii, but those projects were ultimately canceled. For a long time, Kid Icarus was best known for a character appearance in the Captain N: The Game Master cartoon, leaving the series largely as a minor part of Nintendo’s history.

How Pit Returned

The Kid Icarus series became a beloved cult classic, largely because Nintendo didn’t heavily promote it. It stayed that way for over twenty years until Pit reappeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2008. As a playable character, Pit stood out thanks to his special fighting style and important role in the game’s story mode, “The Subspace Emissary.” Just like Fire Emblem benefited from characters like Marth and Roy appearing in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Kid Icarus experienced a resurgence in popularity thanks to the fighting series.

The series’ resurgence even led to a third game, Kid Icarus: Uprising. Though originally planned for the Nintendo 3DS launch, development took longer than expected, and the game finally came out in 2012. It was well-received by critics and sold over a million copies. Since then, Kid Icarus hasn’t had a major release, appearing mostly in Super Smash Bros. games or as hidden references, like in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This shows that even if it takes years for a character to become popular, all it takes is one great, memorable appearance to bring them back into the spotlight.

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2025-12-24 20:14